Monday, June 29, 2015

A Great Hand!

I play poker every Friday night. It is just a guys' night out, and the stakes are low (nickel, dime, quarter poker), but it is great fun. We've been playing regularly, usually at my house, for about 14 years.

Last Friday night Lou Ann had planned to spend the evening with her friend Ellen who had rented a cottage for two weeks. When Lou Ann came home for a few minutes after her Ghost Walk the heavens opened up with torrential rain, thunder, and lightening. We were in the kitchen drinking beer and playing poker.

Although Friday night poker is a guys only event, everyone at the table felt sorry for Lou Ann because the storm was keeping her from going to visit her friend. We all agreed to break our rule, and let her play "just this one evening."

Here is an un-staged photo of one of Lou Ann's winning hands:















This, of course, is a king-high straight flush. There is only one other natural poker hand that will beat this one...an ace-high straight flush. Congratulations, Lou Ann! It is going to take another thunder storm for us to let a woman play again!

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter relates the story of the prohibition-era rum runner Messenger of Peace that brought much pleasure to the residents of Portsmouth. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news062115.htm


7 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:20 AM

    Beginner's luck
    Gets you everytime
    Nice, Lou Ann
    But don't spend your winnings all in one place

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  2. Anonymous8:27 AM

    Definitely a lightning-strike convergence of circumstances. Congrats to the lucky winner. Curious to know the denomination of those poker chips/value of the jackpot Lou Ann hauled in. Years ago at our monthly game of Texas Hold 'Em, a friend sitting in the big blind position caught a royal straight flush--ace high--but everyone folded to his bet. His haul for catching poker's best hand: the small blind, 25 cents. That's a tale for the ages around our poker table, just as Lou Ann's is around yours. Thanks, as always, for your tales of Ocracoke.

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    Replies
    1. I don't remember the value of that pot...probably about 3 or 4 dollars. Lou Ann just grabbed a few chips for the photo.

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  3. Anonymous9:23 AM

    I hope some high school student of probability reads this post. The fact that the poker group increased by a factor of one and the dealer shuffles the cards in no doubt a habitual manner. The natural distribution of the cards for the control group last week suffered. Perhaps suffered is a poor choice of words, Now was LouAnn seated in a red chair or was it chair with a flowered cushion? was she seated to the left of a right handed dealer or two seats to the right of a left handed dealer?
    Once all the variables have been identified perhaps the other winning hands can be dealt in an experiment of the Ocracoke Island Poker group under the influence of perfume.

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  4. I have been trying for years to break into this all male group. I guess I will have to stand outside of Philip's house on a rainy Friday night and look pitiful. Lida

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:09 AM

      Your sense of humor alone should get you in. :-)

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  5. Thanks to all of you for the comments. You really should have seen the look on all their faces...complete denial!!! Yes, we will all tell this story in the years that come.

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